Steps for Success 2020
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Steps for Success 2020 Independence: Literacy: Equipment: Attitude: Resilience: Numeracy Mr M Koza, Assistant Headteacher WELCOME Independence: Literacy: Equipment: Attitude: Resilience: Numeracy HOW TO REVISE EFFECTIVELY… Independence: Literacy: Equipment: Attitude: Resilience: Numeracy Location Information Memorising Scheduling Revision Environment Grigori Rasputin 1869 - 1916 Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (21 January 1869 – 30 December 1916) was a Russian mystic and advisor to the Romanovs, the Russian imperial family. Rasputin was born a peasant in the small village of Pokrovskoye, along the Tura River in the immense West Siberian Plain. Rasputin was born on 21 January and was baptised the following day, the feast day of Gregory of Nyssa. When he was around the age of eighteen, Rasputin spent three months in the famous Verkhoturye monastery, maybe as a penance for theft. Not far from the monastery, Rasputin visited a holy man named Makariy, whose hut was situated nearby. Makariy had an enormous influence on Rasputin, and then later modelled himself largely on him. Rasputin gave up drinking alcohol and eating meat. His experience there, combined with a reported vision of the Virgin Mary on his return, turned him towards the life of a religious mystic and wanderer. He was not a monk, nor was he ever officially connected to the Orthodox Church, but was considered a "strannik" (or pilgrim) wandering from cloister to cloister. He was regarded as a starets, an "elder", a title usually reserved for monk-confessors by those believing him to be a psychic and mystic healer. Rasputin was obsessed by religion and impressed many people with his knowledge and ability to explain the Bible in an uncomplicated way. In 1907 Rasputin was invited for the first time by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra as a healer for their only son, Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia. Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Alex's illness. It was not publicly known that Alexei had haemophilia, a disease that was widespread among European royalty descended from the British Queen Victoria, who was Alexei's great-grandmother. Rasputin was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer and was indeed able to give the boy some relief, in spite of the doctors' prediction that he would die. The boy had an injury which caused him internal or external bleeding, and to everyone's surprise he got better the next day. Some have claimed that he healed Alexei through hypnosis, others have pointed out that Rasputin's healing suggestions included halting the administration of aspirin, a then newly available pain-relieving "wonder drug". Since aspirin is also an anticoagulant, it would have worsened the heamarthrosis causing Alexei's joints' swelling and pain. The Tsar referred to Rasputin as "our friend" and a "holy man", a sign of the trust that the family had placed in him. Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Tsarina Alexandra and she considered him a man of God and a religious prophet. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin. The Tsarina and her family saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer and prophet but his enemies, as a debauched religious charlatan, heavily interested in sexual relations with his followers. There has been much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and influence, as accounts have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay and legend. The closer he became to the royal family, the more wary people became of his great power over the tsarina in particular. Coupled with the rising civil unrest and wartime depression that raged outside of the palace, Rasputin became a public symbol of the corruption of the ruling class. Both the orthodox church and the upper classes tried to slander his name through connections to the popularly reviled cult called the Khlysts. They practiced a form of flagellation, or beating, in group settings that culminated in sexual activity, with the belief that salvation requires engaging in sinful activity with others to drive it out of them. Those sexually-driven principles would eventually follow him into the royal palace. Suspicions that Rasputin was a cultish sex-fiend tarnished his reputation right until the end of his life. In 1914, Rasputin endured the first murder attempt on his life. On June 16, a woman stabbed Rasputin in the lower stomach outside of his home. A wound that the mystic healed from a few weeks later. In 1916, while the military situation worsened abroad, a group of men gathered to plan how they would bring the mystic down. Married to the niece of Tsar Nicholas, Prince Felix plotted with a group of nobles to assassinate Rasputin in an effort to save Russia from imminent collapse. Historians believe that the prince wooed Rasputin to his home with the prospect of meeting his attractive wife. Prince Felix laced pastries and wine with enough cyanide to poison five men. However, after Rasputin arrived and began eating and drinking, the poison had no effect and Prince Felix panicked; he pulled out a gun and shot Rasputin, striking him in the back. After Rasputin fell to floor and was presumed dead, Prince Felix and his friends celebrated upstairs. A little later, Prince Felix checked on the body. Somehow still alive, Rasputin opened his eyes and attempted to escape. Prince Felix chased Rasputin out into the yard, shooting him two more times and beating him with a club. To ensure he didn't rouse again, the men tied Rasputin in a blanket and dumped his body into the Neva River. He died at the age of 47. His body was buried but later dug up by a group of workers. They burned it, and while it was aflame, it appeared that Rasputin's body sat up. Onlookers were understandably horrified. This probably happened because Rasputin's tendons were not cut before his body was burned. Consequently, the flames caused the tendons to shrink and the body to bend at the waist and sit up. Additional factors about the specifics of Rasputin's death have floated around over the years, including whether he was castrated by his murderers. Grigori Rasputin 1869 - 1916 Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (21 January 1869 – 30 December 1916) was a Russian mystic and advisor to the Romanovs, the Russian imperial family. Rasputin was born a peasant in the small village of Pokrovskoye, along the Tura River in the immense West Siberian Plain. Rasputin was born on 21 January and was baptised the following day, the feast day of Gregory of Nyssa. When he was around the age of eighteen, Rasputin spent three months in the famous Verkhoturye monastery, maybe as a penance for theft. Not far from the monastery, Rasputin visited a holy man named Makariy, whose hut was situated nearby. Makariy had an enormous influence on Rasputin, and then later modelled himself largely on him. Rasputin gave up drinking alcohol and eating meat. His experience there, combined with a reported vision of the Virgin Mary on his return, turned him towards the life of a religious mystic and wanderer. He was not a monk, nor was he ever officially connected to the Orthodox Church, but was considered a "strannik" (or pilgrim) wandering from cloister to cloister. He was regarded as a starets, an "elder", a title usually reserved for monk-confessors by those believing him to be a psychic and mystic healer. Rasputin was obsessed by religion and impressed many people with his knowledge and ability to explain the Bible in an uncomplicated way. In 1907 Rasputin was invited for the first time by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra as a healer for their only son, Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia. Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Alex's illness. It was not publicly known that Alexei had haemophilia, a disease that was widespread among European royalty descended from the British Queen Victoria, who was Alexei's great-grandmother. Rasputin was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer and was indeed able to give the boy some relief, in spite of the doctors' prediction that he would die. The boy had an injury which caused him internal or external bleeding, and to everyone's surprise he got better the next day. Some have claimed that he healed Alexei through hypnosis, others have pointed out that Rasputin's healing suggestions included halting the administration of aspirin, a then newly available pain-relieving "wonder drug". Since aspirin is also an anticoagulant, it would have worsened the heamarthrosis causing Alexei's joints' swelling and pain. The Tsar referred to Rasputin as "our friend" and a "holy man", a sign of the trust that the family had placed in him. Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Tsarina Alexandra and she considered him a man of God and a religious prophet. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin. The Tsarina and her family saw Rasputin variously as a saintly mystic, visionary, healer and prophet but his enemies, as a debauched religious charlatan, heavily interested in sexual relations with his followers. There has been much uncertainty over Rasputin's life and influence, as accounts have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay and legend. The closer he became to the royal family, the more wary people became of his great power over the tsarina in particular. Coupled with the rising civil unrest and wartime depression that raged outside of the palace, Rasputin became a public symbol of the corruption of the ruling class. Both the orthodox church and the upper classes tried to slander his name through connections to the popularly reviled cult called the Khlysts.